Amy Hagstrom Miller

Independent Abortion Providers Are More Underfunded — And Underappreciated — Than Some Realize

By Monica Busch
Nov 14, 2018

Although abortion care conversations often center around large, nationwide providers, there is a class of determined, smaller clinics in the United States, some of which have been around for more than three decades. These independent abortion clinics provide most abortion services in the United States, according to a new report released by the Abortion Care Network (ACN), and experts say they also tend to provide a wider array of options for their patients. But according to the ACN, which collects data on these providers, they're also struggling to stay open.

"Independent clinics are community based, locally owned," Amy Hagstrom Miller, CEO of Whole Woman's Health — which won a major Supreme Court case — tells Bustle. "They’re usually owned by a local doctor just like a medical practice. And so the doctors... They’re more sort of like regular, normal health care providers."

Texas abortion providers challenge restrictive state laws in new lawsuit

By Alison Durkee
June 15, 2018

Abortion providers in Texas filed a sweeping lawsuit against the state Thursday, targeting dozens of state laws that restrict access to abortion.

The lawsuit, filed by Whole Woman’s Health Alliance, Fund Texas Choice, the Lilith Fund and other organizations against Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, comes two years after the U.S. Supreme Court case Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt. That ruling struck down two other Texas abortion laws, ruling that they imposed an “undue burden” on women seeking an abortion.

Fatimah Gifford was nervous the day she was scheduled to testify in front of Texas’ Health and Human Services committee. Gifford is the VP of Communications for Whole Woman’s Health, which operates five reproductive healthcare clinics across Texas. This wasn’t her first time testifying before the state legislature, but it was her first time testifying about abortion.

“I entered into this with eyes wide open, and knowing that I was more than likely going to be devoured up in there,” she says.

Amy Hagstrom Miller is willing to take her case to the Supreme Court for safe abortion access.

By Amy Hagstrom Miller
Dec 14, 2016, Cosmopolitan

My team at Whole Woman’s Health and I are bruised and battered beyond what you could imagine. And yet, I am ready to fight again.

In July, four days after the Supreme Court overturned two provisions that restricted women’s access to abortion in Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott proposed a new abortion restriction to the Texas Department of Health and Human Services. The new restriction would require all women who have an embryo or fetus removed due to abortion, miscarriage, or ectopic pregnancy surgery at a medical facility to cremate or have a funeral for the removed tissue. On Nov. 29, the Department of Health and Human Services approved the restriction, with a plan to put it into effect by Dec. 19.